[Advocacy Advisors] Request for consultation: Possible amendments to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

[Stephen LaPorte]

Hello advocacy advisers,

The Wikimedia Foundation was recently approached about joining advocacy
campaign opposing an
amendment<http://www.scribd.com/doc/132249133/House-Judiciary-Committee-discussion-draft>to
the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act ("CFAA"). Following our guidelines
on policy and political
affiliations<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Foundation_Policy_and_Political_Affiliations_Guideline>,
I would like to ask your for guidance on how/whether we should participate.

CFAA <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act> is a
federal law concerning fraud and related activity, including "exceeding
authorized access" to certain computer systems. The law has received much
criticism after the prosecution of Aaron Swartz.

According to the Center for Democracy and
Technology<https://www.cdt.org/blogs/0204cdt-joins-bipartisan-coalition-oppose-dramatic-expansion-computer-crime-law>,
instead of fixing the problems with the current law, the amendment "would
push the law in the exact wrong direction, dramatically heightening
penalties while giving the government and civil litigants more latitude to
prosecute or sue average Internet users who happen to violate a Web site’s
terms of service or an employer’s computer use policy." A diverse set of
experts signed a letter opposing the
bill<https://www.cdt.org/files/pdfs/LetterOpposingCFAADraft_final-1.pdf>earlier
this week. Attached is a packet of information on the CFAA, and
additional analysis is available below.

While the amendment is examined by the Judiciary Committee, a number of
websites are joining in a "week of action" starting April 8 to oppose this
amendment: http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2013/04/01

As valued and interested members of the Wikimedia community, we would like
to hear your advice: Do you recommend that we participate in the "week of
action" about the proposed amendment to the CFAA? If so, how would you
recommend participating? E.g., should we prepare a blog post, our own
public statement, or join another organization's statement?

Your feedback and guidance is much appreciated.

*Additional analysis*

* Electronic Frontier Foundation:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/04/diverse-group-organizations-and-experts-oppose-house-judiciary-committees
* Orin Kerr: http://www.volokh.com/category/computer-fraud-and-abuse-act/
* Tech Dirt:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130324/14342822435/rather-than-fix-cfaa-house-judiciary-committee-planning-to-make-it-worse-way-worse.shtml
* Erik Goldman:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericgoldman/2013/03/28/the-computer-fraud-and-abuse-act-is-a-failed-experiment/

-- 
Stephen LaPorte
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation

*For legal reasons, I may only serve as an attorney for the Wikimedia
Foundation. This means I may not give legal advice to or serve as a lawyer
for community members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal
capacity.*
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